Foreshadowed

Foreshadowed

The Crimson Bond Series

Book Two

Copyright © 2013 by Erika Trevathan

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

PROLOGUE

Wedding Day…

Oh, boy I was nervous. As the silky underlay of the delicate white lace dress slid over my head and down my body, I took a steadying breath. I looked up into the full length mirror and couldn’t believe that it was really happening. My hair tumbled down my back and was swept away from my face with a series of intricate twists. I looked desperately over at Anna who seemed to read the panic on my face.

“Brooke, don’t freak out. You and Alex have been to hell and back, literally, and you deserve this day.” Her gaze took me in and she smiled. “Seriously, you’re gonna blow him away.”

I wasn’t really sure what it was about actually getting married that I found terrifying. Heck, I had handled being turned into a vampire like a champ, but now all I had to do was walk down the aisle and into Alex’s arms and I was a nutcase. A lot had to do with the huge number of guests that awaited me outside. I really, I mean
really
, didn’t like getting in front of crowds and most of the people out there I had never even met. Somehow our little wedding had ended up transforming into an event. With Alex, that shouldn’t have surprised me.

             I closed my eyes, trying to channel my inner starlit. It was no use, I wasn’t going to feel comfortable being in the spotlight and that wasn’t going to change in the next few minutes. I opened my eyes and turned to face Anna.

“Thank you so much for being here for me. I don’t know if I could have done this without you.” I sighed remorsefully. “Why couldn’t I talk Alex into eloping?”

Anna gave me a playful look. “Because, Brooke, Alex wants to make sure everyone knows you’re his. There was no way he was letting you get away with that.”

“You’re right. Too late to back out now anyway.” I grimaced at the thought of stepping out those doors and facing the hundreds of pairs of eyes that would be watching me. I took one last calming breath. “Ugh, let‘s do this thing.”

When I stepped outside and saw the dark night lit with thousands of twinkling lights, I was stunned. Alex had made me promise to let him handle this part, which I thought was a little odd, but he reasoned that it was his fault we were having this massive wedding, so he would take some of the wedding planning stress away from me. And, boy, had he delivered. He was giving me something I hadn’t even known I wanted, until now. A long red velvet runway sprinkled with white rose petals led through rows of guests to an archway covered in massive amounts of blood red roses. And there Alex stood, looking so utterly gorgeous that I forgot all about feeling nervous and thought of nothing except him. Everyone and everything else melted from my vision and it was just me and Alex.

Finally, I took a step forward, intent on making it to him, and was startled when an arm slipped through mine. When I looked over, I couldn’t have been more shocked.

Demetrie smiled down at me and then leaned to whisper into my ear. “Brooke, please let me do this for you. I know I have failed in a lot of ways, but please let me do something right, for once.”

Our eyes met and held and something passed between us that felt like a truce. I nodded and turned my eyes back to Alex, who was watching me intently. He smiled when he realized that I wasn’t upset with my father’s appearance, and I wondered if he was behind that too. I walked up the aisle with my eyes on Alex and no one else. When my hand finally slid into his and he pulled me next to him, it felt like the sun, moon and stars were all aligning and everything in my world was right. I made it through the vows without missing a beat, but knew I was in trouble when Alex turned to me with a devilish grin. My eyes widened as he pulled me to him and then dipped me backwards in a long kiss. The crowd cheered and I could feel my vampire blood going straight to my cheeks. He pulled back a little and looked at me with his gorgeous glowing blue eyes. If my heart could have skipped a beat it would have.

“I love you Alex,” I breathed.

Alex ran the back of his hand gently down the side of my face. “Je t'aime de tout mon coeur, pour le reste d'éternité.” It was absolutely beautiful and I picked up the French word for love, but other than that, I had no idea what he said. I looked at him quizzically. He smiled and said. “It’s French for; I love you with all of my heart, for the rest of eternity.”

CHAPTER 1

One month later…

            In the completely still night, the sound of crunching leaves was the only thing that could be heard for miles. And I would know. My hearing was precise and extraordinarily sharp. It was one of the many advantages of being a vampire. I appreciated the ability, but the silence that seemed to stalk me now-- well,
that
I wasn't so sure I would ever get used to. It was as if every living animal in the forest could sense I was a predator.
Predator.
That word bothered me even more than having to limit my diet to blood. The absence of the usual sounds of birds chirping or small animals scurrying across the forest floor seemed incredibly loud as I made my way to the clearing where Alex had proposed to me. It was becoming a nightly ritual for me ever since returning from Romania.
Ugh
, it still gave me a sense of dread every time I thought about the Regency, the group of ruling vampires that had kidnapped me to their castle in Romania in an attempt to prevent Alex and I from bonding. They had been shadowing my and Alex's every move since our return and I had a feeling the bottom was going to drop out before too much longer. To make matters worse, my father was a king in the vampire world and leader of the Regency. I was pretty sure he had turned a blind eye on my escape from Romania and he had even shown up to give me away at my wedding to Alex; but the fact remained-- I didn't trust him.

            I made my way to the edge of the water, watching it gently ripple as the moonlight glistened off the surface. I stuck my bare foot out to dip into the cool water, enjoying the light breeze that ruffled the hem of my knee length white linen dress. The flats I'd slipped on before heading out had been kicked carelessly off several feet back. I was just contemplating shrugging off my dress and diving in when I felt the distinctly familiar warming of my blood that meant only one thing-- Alex was near.

            If my new vampire radar was correct, and it almost always was, Alex was several feet behind me. I smiled to myself and, pretending not to notice he was behind me, I reached down and grasped the hem of my white linen dress and in one fluid motion pulled it up over my head and let it fall to the ground. I heard his sharp intake of breath behind me and knew my actions had hit their mark. The fact that there had been absolutely nothing underneath the dress, probably had
something
to do with it as well. I stepped out into the cool water and dove under, gliding easily towards the center of the pond, making it to the middle before coming up. I surfaced, smoothing my hair away from my face and glanced toward the shore to see if Alex was still there. All I could see was the vacant night. Hmm, what was he up to?

           
Two can play this game, you know.
Alex's voice slipped into my head, causing my eyes to dart around the night, looking for him. I was just starting to get nervous when I was yanked below water and wrapped with strong arms.

            Gotcha

           
As we surfaced again, I hit him playfully on the arm. "Alex, you should know better than to sneak up on me now. Have you forgotten about my super vampire strength?"

            "I think I can handle you. Besides, I have an agenda."

            I raised my eyebrows in question, even though I had a pretty good idea of what his agenda consisted of. I was counting on it, in fact. "Oh yeah? And exactly what is on your agenda, because I kinda have plans."

            "Your plans were cancelled the minute you stripped in the moonlight back there. You've got other plans now."

            "Really? What if I told you I think my plans might be the same as yours." I turned around in his arms letting my head fall back against his shoulder. He leaned down kissing me gently on the neck.

CHAPTER 2

            It was hours later before we finally made our way back to the house just as the sun was rising. I never really would get used to it. The feeling of belonging that had warmed through me the minute my name had been pronounced 'Mrs. Alex Chase'. It didn't hurt that my future was permanently tied to one of the most ancient and feared vampires in existence. That he was gorgeous, successful, and sexy as hell-- that didn't hurt either. The legally binding part was just a formality, I knew, but years of being human and viewing marriage as the end all and be all of a relationship had ingrained its importance in me. It was silly, I guess, because Alex and I were bound in a way that very few ever had been. Marriage didn't even come close to what we had. We shared an intense bond that made us virtually one and tied our eternal lives together until the end of time... or until the end of one of us. It was kind of scary, actually, because if either he or I ceased to exist, the other would as well. It took
forever
to a whole new level.

            I climbed out of bed and stretched. My human habit of sleeping was needless, really, as my vampire self had no use for sleep, but it was one human luxury that I refused to part with. And technically it wasn't really sleeping, but resting with my eyes closed or regenerating, as I liked to think of it. Alex found my determination to continue the habit extremely amusing and shook his head in disbelief whenever I got the notion to "sleep". He'd made it pretty clear that he thought I was deluding myself into thinking that I would be able to hold on to pieces of my human self. And he was right-- I had every intention of being the most human vampire I could be. Both Alex and Ethan, who was the closest thing Alex had to a brother, liked to playfully give me a hard time about my stubbornness to completely embrace the vampire life. Ethan had become like a brother to me, although he liked to push the boundaries from time to time. But, for the most part, I had learned how to handle him and we all got along quite well.

            The silky floor length black night gown I had worn to bed swished lightly over my legs as I walked to the window and threw open the heavy curtains. Before, I would just put on a camisole and shorts for bed, but Alex had ordered me clothing from a local boutique and this satin nightgown was the sort of thing that made up the majority of the nightwear. It was okay to wear every now and then, but I missed my normal pajamas. I was putting it on the top of my list to get them from the apartment I had shared with Anna. Everything had been so rushed after my kidnapping, that getting my things moved over from our apartment had taken a back burner. It was a situation I intended to rectify as soon as possible.

            Stepping into the sunlight of the window, I forgot until it was too late that I had yet to develop much of a tolerance to its scathing heat. I jumped back shielding my face and squinting against the seemingly super bright midday sun. I just wasn't used to the increased sensitivity to sunlight yet, though I was pretty sure even my mortal self would have cringed in the face of such bright intensity. Alex had promised me that I would adjust to it before long and that one day it would no longer bother me as much. I was eagerly waiting that day.

            I sighed as I thought longingly of laying on a beach in the tropics somewhere, soaking up the sun's rays. That was one vacation Alex and I would never be taking. Our vampire status pretty much made that an impossibility. One hour of direct sunlight was about all we could stand and even that drained us. But getting Alex for the rest of eternity... well, that more than made up for the sacrifice.

            Standing slightly in the shadow of the room, I gazed out the window over the vast property of the estate. My eyes settled on the far off opening in the middle of the trees that made way for a clearing and glistening pond. A small smile played across my lips as I remembered Alex getting down on one knee in the dark forest lit only by moonlight and asking me, properly, to be his wife. And then, of course, the most recent memory of our time there together last night. Alex hadn't put a lot of stock in the whole marriage vow thing, feeling that it wasn't a strong enough vow, or taken seriously enough these days to be the tie that binds us. But, knowing how important it was to me, he had conceded, and being the overachiever that he was, he'd stopped nothing short of giving me the most romantic proposal and over the top wedding a girl could ask for. And even though, thanks to the Regency, we couldn't take our honeymoon immediately after the wedding, he had spent the last two days proving to me that we didn't need an actual honeymoon to
honeymoon
. He'd done such a good job of it, in fact, that I hadn't even considered leaving our house since he'd carried me over it's threshold a couple of days ago. If it wasn't for the fact that he'd had some pressing business at his company, Chase Advertising, I probably wouldn't be getting dressed to meet Anna this morning for coffee. But I was glad that I was. It would be easy to stay here on Alex's estate and spend my every moment with him. I had to remind myself that we had the rest of eternity together and I didn't have to be so stingy with my time. I imagined, though, that it was that way for most newlyweds; we had just skipped the honeymoon part.

            Though postponing our actual honeymoon hadn't bothered me. I'd had enough excitement to last me a lifetime after the Regency had sent Lucien to kidnap me and whisk me away to their headquarters in Romania. I was realistic enough to realize that the threat may never go away and eventually I would have to stop worrying about them. Things just seemed too fresh right now. We had only escaped their grasp barely two months ago and I couldn't shake the feeling that I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. As far as we had heard from our own vampire security team, we were being watched, and pretty closely, by members of the Regency. I had no idea what they were scheming, but I was determined not to live my life in fear.